SUMMARY
In Leviticus 16, the LORD gives instructions to Moses about observing the annual Day of Atonement. The calendar of religious festivals is established in Leviticus 23.
ANALYSIS
The rituals for the Day of AtonementA Day of Atonement is a ritual occasion of prayer and confession during which a community recalls its disobedience and wrongdoing. Among Christians such an occasion is known as a Day of Penitence. Among Jews Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement; its origins in... More are described in detail in Leviticus 16. This is the only day of the year when the high priest can enter the innermost part of the sanctuary, the holy of holies. There, he offers incense and sprinkles the blood of sacrifices to make atonement for the sanctuaryA sanctuary is the consecrated area around the altar of a church or temple. It also means a place of safety where one can flee for protection. In the Old Testament, especially in the Psalms, God is referred to as a sanctuary, a refuge from... More, for himself, and for the people. The ritual for the Day of Atonement also includes the practice of the high priest laying hands on the head of a goat and confessing the people’s sins–thereby ritually laying the burden of those sins on the goat–then sending the goat out into the wilderness. William Tyndale in the 16th century coined the term “scapegoat” to describe the function of the goat in this passage.
The Day of Atonement, or Yom Kippur, remains the most important of the high holyHoly is a term that originally meant set apart for the worship or service of God. While the term may refer to people, objects, time, or places, holiness in Judaism and Christianity primarily denotes the realm of the divine More days in the Jewish calendar today. It also provides the background for the discussion in Hebrews 9, where the author of Hebrews proclaims Jesus as both the great high priestThe high priest was the most powerful priest in the temple in Jerusalem. The high priest Caiaphas held the office during the trial of Jesus. Later, in the New Testament book of Hebrews, the role of merciful high priest is ascribed to the resurrected Jesus. More and the final sacrifice.
In chapter 23, the Israelites are instructed to observe certain “holy convocations” and “appointed festivals” (23:2). There are six such festivals, three in the spring–the Festival of Passover and Unleavened Bread, the Festival of First Fruits, and the Festival of Weeks–and three in the fall–the Festival of Trumpets, the Day of Atonement, and the Festival of Booths. The weekly observance of the Sabbath heads the list of festivals in chapter 23, reflecting the priestly concern with the SabbathSabbath is a weekly day of rest, the seventh day, observed on Saturday in Judaism and on Sunday in Christianity. In the book of Genesis, God rested on the seventh day; in the Gospel accounts Jesus and his disciples are criticized by some for not... More (compare Genesis 2:2-3; Leviticus 25). There are other such liturgical calendar texts in the Pentateuch (Exodus 23:14-19; Deuteronomy 16) but the ones in Leviticus 23 and Numbers 28-29 are the fullest lists of the major holy days.
